Experience and leadership often go hand in hand, and Sacred Heart maximized it to its advantage as the Cardinals defeated Episcopal of Baton Rouge 2-0 at Tad Gormley Stadium on Saturday for their third straight Division III girls soccer state championship.Senior Kristen Kern scored both Cardinals’ goals and was named the match’s outstanding player.It was the eighth consecutive appearance in a state championship for fifth-seeded Sacred Heart, the seventh consecutive appearance in the Division III title game for the Cardinals, and the fifth in as many years under Tooraj Badie, who succeed Sean Moser, who went to St. Paul’s as an assistant before being promoted later to head coach.“We knew this team could do it again,” Badie said. “When we were in the locker room before the match I told them that my assistant (Lee Westlake) and I were the only ones in this room who knew we were going to be here. None of the players believed we could make it this far. The key to our team is that we got all of our injured players back, and two games before the playoffs, we really started clicking.”Sacred Heart (16-8-2) had gone into the previous two championship matches as the top seed and defeated Catholic High of New Iberia both times. Prior to that, they lost in four straight title games, twice to St. Louis, which moved up to Division II, and twice to Newman. During 2004-05 season, its last year in Division II, Sacred Heart defeated St. Scholastica 1-0 for the title.“With this year’s team, I only had two seniors from last year’s team, so I had a very young team,” Badie said. “The rest of the team was still getting experience.”In the early stages of the match, both teams were locked in a struggle for momentum with second-seeded Episcopal (25-4-1) applying pressure effectively having the wind at their backs, and generating a pair of shots on goal in the first 10 minutes, but without force.After having gained a growing measure of confidence, the break the Cardinals were searching for occurred in the 27th minute when Kern scored the first of two goals in the game for a 1-0 advantage. That seemed to settle the team down.“We had been practicing this, building up from the back,” said Kern. “We were passing back and forth between everyone, and M.J. (Williams) made a beautiful cross, and I just happened to be there.”The Lady Knights did their best to stay in step with the three-time defending state champions, but the level of frustration with not being able to find clear, open shots was evident.“They are definitely a quality team, and it came down to wanting it,” said Episcopal Coach Matt Shelton. “We couldn’t get the breaks, or the ball to bounce our way. There was no doubt we had a chance to win, and we got some good opportunities toward the end, but we couldn’t close them out.”One of the many things Sacred Heart had on its side from the experience end was that, if what they were doing was working, it didn’t need to change. So, they stuck with their 4-4-2 alignment which became more troublesome for Episcopal, continuously probing for a quality shot on goal which never came due to the stingy nature of the Cardinals’ length and time of possession.“Our game is possession,” said Badie. “As long as we didn’t give up a cheap goal, I felt we’d settle in and play our type of soccer. When we started to find our midfielders, that is when our game started to flow. We wanted to keep possession and not lose the ball.”Inside of stoppage time toward the end of the match, Kern struck again, giving the Cardinals an almost insurmountable 2-0 lead with their third consecutive title just seconds away.“I knew we were at a dangerous point with only one goal, because they could score and get right back in it,” said Kern. “All of the three championship teams I’ve been on were unforgettable. With this being the last match of my career, it also meant a lot because it was an honor to play with all of these girls.”